I will be finishing the book I am currently reading, Jack Kerouac's Selected Letters (1957-1969), on the train ride home this evening. Kerouac lived in Berkeley (where I once lived and now work), not far from here in a cottage at 1943 Berkeley Way, for a short period in 1957. Last month, I went out of my office, and made two lefts, and arrived at the address. This is what I found... an apartment building.

At some point since the late fifties, a developer tore down the cottage that Kerouac resided in when the first shipment of On the Road was delivered to him. His closest friends stopped by, including Neal Cassady, the real-life Dean Moriarty, to read the book that made Jack Kerouac the king of the beat generation. (How do you sleep at night, Berkeley city council?)

In this photo, the cottage would be where the garage entrance is...



In this photo, the cottage would be immediately to the right of the trees...

Labels: photowonders, reading